2 sides 2 everything

well, the first part of my trip in mali is done, and i'm moving on to the next part. i'm sitting in an internet spot in fajiguila with sidy maiga, who some of you know. big hello from him to you.
the 1 giant leap guys left on monday night after an exhausting and productive trip here. we got film and audio of rokia traore in her village, oumou sangare in her hotel, ramata diakite on her roof, masks in safo, and tons of other great stuff. it was quite a trip working with the guys. despite the existence of a confidentiality agreement, i've got some photos and videos, as the film will enter post production in may after they visit another 18 countries and the film is scheduled to be finished in may of 2006. check their website and bulletin board for more info - check out the 'love from mali' post by jamie catto, the director, for his take on the trip. our gear will definently have to be 'hoovered' to get the dust out, this country is dry now and between safo and the masks there and rokia' village, there was tons of dust. my gear didn't go to safo, so it'll be a little cleaner.
the guys were staying at the sofitel in the center of the city at 78,000 cfa a night. wow. also staying there was rokia traore, ba cissoko and group, a bunch of military soccer teams in town for the CAM tournament. mali plays guinea in the semifinal tomorrow, bamako will be crazy.
the coulibaly house is great, they are all doing well.
it's quite biizzare doing email now. i've got a bunch of messages regarding fiji and i'm sitting in mali. both beautiful places, but very different. and tough to try and be mentally in more than one place.
last night was great, sitting on the roof of the coulibaly house looking out at the neighborhood as the sun set. all the red in the soil just goes off, and the sky also lit up. the trees go deep green, and the colors on the houses also go deep. amazing.
i start trying to get the calabash stuff lined up tomorrow, but first have to go buy some nice malian clothes since i didn't bring nice western clothes. then off to usaid and various government ministries. ramata is going to do some introducing and i've left info with oumou sangare.
i'm trying to email and blog at the same time, and having a tough go of it as the mouse works only about once out of every 10-20 clicks. grrrrr.
so, time is up, but i've found the internet cafe now, so i'll be back soon . . .
love to all.
e